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Chicago leaders push to bolster public safety amid crime wave
Chicago's leaders are looking for new ways to fight crime. This, as more than 30 people were shot over the weekend in two dozen incidents, and five people were killed.
CHICAGO - A string of shootings in and near downtown Chicago over the weekend has one neighborhood organization complaining about the "casual violence."
"I’ve lived here for 26 years and never imagined that we’d be dealing with this level of serious crime. Something has to change," Brian Israel, president of the River North Residents Association, wrote Monday in an email to the Sun-Times.
"The casual violence of these incidents is terrible. But what’s even worse is their frequency. This kind of behavior can’t be allowed to become normalized."
Israel was reacting to the latest weekend of gun violence in Chicago, which included a mass shooting early Sunday in River North. Four people were injured when someone fired from a car on State Street.
"Everyone in the community is extremely distressed" about the unrelenting violence, Israel wrote.
In the email, Israel said the association’s leadership team has been "meeting to discuss" the crisis and that its leaders "understand that extraordinary measures are necessary to respond to extraordinary circumstances."
He did not elaborate.
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That River North shooting occurred around 1 a.m. in the 400 block of North State Street, the same block where two men were wounded in a drive-by shooting just two weeks ago.
A little over 24 hours later, a man was wounded in a shootout with five gunmen who confronted him in a South Loop parking lot early Monday, minutes after carjackers struck a woman and stole her car less than a mile away.
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) and Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), whose wards cover much of downtown, could not be reached for comment on the latest incidents.
In downtown’s 18th Police District, murders are up 100% and shootings are up 53% from a year ago.
In all, crime is up 71% in the district, including burglaries, theft, robberies, sexual assaults and motor vehicle thefts.
The latest shooting happened around 3:40 a.m. Monday in the 1100 block of Delano Court, police said. A man had pulled in to a parking lot, followed by a black Jeep and a white sedan.
Five people, all armed with handguns, approached the man, who was a concealed-carry holder and pulled out his own gun, police said. There was an exchange of gunfire, and the five attackers ran back to their cars and sped off.
The concealed-carry holder was shot in the leg and grazed in the head and was taken in good condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police said.
Minutes earlier, a woman was standing with a friend in the 700 block of South Wells Street when a black Jeep approached and three people got out and demanded their property, police said. One of the attackers hit the woman, 48, in the head, and the robbers then took off in her Chrysler 300.
Police would not say whether the attacks were related. No arrests have been made.
Both incidents occurred in the 1st Police District, where crime is up 111% over last year, including a 136% increase in motor vehicle theft, a 155% increase in theft and an 82% increase in robbery. Shootings are up 33% in the district and homicides are up 167%, according to Chicago Police Department data.
In Sunday’s River North shooting, a witness told police someone in a white sedan opened fire while headed south on State Street, wounding three men and a woman.
A 29-year-old man, hit in the neck, jaw and chest, was taken in critical condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital; a 40-year-old woman shot in the leg and knee was transported to the hospital in fair condition; a 41-year-old man suffered a graze wound to the leg and was taken to the hospital in good condition: and a 27-year-old man shot in the foot was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition.
About half an hour later, a woman was shot as she stood next to her car in the 600 block of West Scott Street on the Near North Side, police said.
The woman, 24, suffered a graze wound to the back of her neck and was taken in good condition to Northwestern.
Around 4:25 a.m., two men were shot in the first block of West Elm Street on the Near North Side, police said.
A 37-year-old man was taken in serious condition to Northwestern and a 39-year-old man was taken to the hospital in fair condition.
No one was in custody is any of the downtown attacks.
Across the city, at least 16 people were hit by gunfire after midnight Sunday, including a 17-year-old girl shot and seriously wounded in the Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side.